Background
Henry Conwell was born about 1745 in Moneymore, County Derry, Ireland. He was the son of Owen Conwell and his wife, Mary (Keegan) Conwell.
Henry Conwell was born about 1745 in Moneymore, County Derry, Ireland. He was the son of Owen Conwell and his wife, Mary (Keegan) Conwell.
Conwell studied for the priesthood in Paris. He was ordained priest in 1776.
For twenty-four years before coming to America Conwell was vicar-general in the ancient metropolitan see of Armagh. Appointed bishop of Philadelphia by papal letters dated November 26, 1819, he was consecrated in London by William Poynter, the vicar apostolic of the Southern District, on September 24, 1820, and arrived in Philadelphia about the end of November in the same year. Soon after his arrival some domestic difficulties with a rebellious priest, William Hogan, opened a long-drawn-out controversy which was, unhappily, the significant episode of Conwell’s career.
The lay trustees at St. Mary s, which was then the cathedral church, claimed the right to retain Hogan in his pastoral office despite the fact that the bishop had deprived him of the exercise of faculties of the priesthood. Litigation followed in which it was shown definitely that the charter granted by the legislature of the state gave the trustees no powers to choose or name their own pastors. It was proved also that the canon-law title to “Patronage” claimed by the trustees did not exist in the churches of America. The trustees now endeavored to have the charter changed, but a decision of the state supreme court in January 1822 rejected the proposed amendment.
After the middle of May 1821, the Cathedral, St. Mary’s, was closed to the bishop and the Catholic congregation, the trustees taking the stand that they had the sole right to the control and administration of temporalities. Those who remained loyal to the bishop were forced to recede to St. Joseph’s Chapel which was enlarged for their accommodation. Later it was found that legal title to ground and buildings was still held in the name of the original purchasers and their successors by will, not in the name of the corporation or its trustees.
In October 1826 an endeavor was made to come to an understanding and terms of peace. An agreement was drawn up defining the rights of each of the contending parties. This pact was by previous consent submitted to the Propaganda at Rome to be judged according to the rules of the general law of the Church. The agreement was rejected by the Sacred Congregation as harmful to the rights of Church government and the sacred ministry. Bishop Conwell was now called to Rome to give an account of the causes of the troubles in Philadelphia, and discuss a remedy. In the meantime the first Provincial Council of Baltimore made a request that Francis Patrick Kenrick be appointed coadjutor to the aged prelate and administrator of the diocese. This request was granted. Bishop Conwell returned, retaining the title Bishop of Philadelphia but with no powers of administration. He lived in retirement. During the closing years of his life he was almost blind and quite deaf.
